Traffic on West Main Street passes by a Welcome to Stamford's West Side Neighborhood sign, shown in a photo taken on May 13, 2016. Shootings on the West Side are on an uprise, with the latest occurring on Tuesday night, May 10 at Stillwater and Liberty Street around 9 PM. The victim, who was shot in the chest, ran to nearby Stamford Hospital, according to police reports on the incident. less

Traffic on West Main Street passes by a Welcome to Stamford's West Side Neighborhood sign, shown in a photo taken on May 13, 2016. Shootings on the West Side are on an uprise, with the latest occurring on ... more

STAMFORD — A cluster of gun violence on the city’s West Side is entering its eighth week amid rising tensions between two feuding neighborhood gangs and an abundance of weapons on the street.

The most recent gunfire occurred early Thursday morning — just hours after about 40 area residents participated in a community meeting to discuss the increased violence — at the corner of West Main and Spruce streets. No one was injured, but a bullet pierced an unoccupied parked car on West Main Street.

Police received a call about shots fired in the same area late Monday night, but could not substantiate the report because the responding officers didn’t find witnesses who heard the shots and no damage was found.

“There appears to be too many guns on the West Side,” Capt. Richard Conklin said.

Conklin said police are hearing anecdotal evidence that the gunfire on the West Side — which began to pick up at the end of March when a 19-year old man was shot on Stillwater Avenue near Westover Elementary School — is being compounded by area residents obtaining weapons to protect themselves.

The majority of the violence stems from a feud between two groups of men in their late teens and early 20s living on Spruce Street and Connecticut Avenue, Conklin said.

“With these simmering feuds, with these shots being fired back and forth, unfortunately, many of these very young men are carrying these guns on them,“ Conklin said. “They are reacting to these shootings, perhaps some of them are shooters and they are worried about retribution.“

But unlike a crime network such as the Latin Kings, allegiance doesn’t have to be sworn in these local groups and dues aren’t collected, Conklin said. And while there is little structure beyond the common bonds of neighborhood, drug dealing and turf protection, the damaging effects on a neighborhood can be similar to those of organized gangs, he said.

“They are not a traditional gang, but they function and act very similar to one and the consequences are the same,” Conklin said. “A lot of people are afraid to come forward because they know this person is not a standalone person because they have confederates and associates that are behind them.”

In one recent case — there have been at least seven reported shootings in the neighborhood since March 25 — a 22-year-old man who was shot in the chest at point-blank range at the corner of Stillwater Avenue and Liberty Street last Tuesday night, critically wounding him, refused to cooperate with police.

A person of interest was found with a gun and arrested the next day, but police, citing a lack of evidence from the shooting victim, can’t charge the man until testing of the weapon is completed.

Two days later, two young men believed to be associated with the Connecticut Avenue faction were arrested in possession of two loaded handguns.

Conklin said his Narcotics and Organized Crime officers are also on the lookout for illegal guns on the street. The squad seized scores of guns last year and recovered an assault weapon and three other guns during a drug bust earlier this week.

“I thought it was a productive meeting,” said Bryant, who reiterated his call for more neighborhood involvement with the effort to make the streets safer. “I believe the police are doing everything possible. As I have said before, it’s not the full responsibility of the police department to combat the violence. It goes much deeper. It starts at home.“

“If we see something, we should say something and being more available to contact police if we see something strange,” Jackson said.

Conklin, who was also in attendance, said community involvement is a valued anti-crime tool for the police.

“We are asking more assistance from the community. Sometimes we get no reports of gunfire and sometimes we get only one call,” Conklin said. “We want a number of calls and descriptions. We would like whatever information people can get for us. If we don’t get these calls, it is much more difficult for us to respond and be effective without the support of the community.”